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ORATION, 



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DELIVERED AT THE REt^UEST OF THE 



CITY AUTHORITIES OF SALEM, 



July 4, 1842. 



^ 



BY CHARLES w: U F H A M , !^oJ" 1675^ 
Pastor of the Firit Church. 





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CHAPMAN AND PALFRAY, 


PRINTERS. 



1842. 



CITY OF SALEM. 
In Common Council — Monday evenm^, July 11, 1842. 

Mr. Driver submitted the following Resolves, which were unaminoiisly adopt- 
ed, and sent up for concurrence". 

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be presented to the Rev. 
Charles W. Upham, for the elotiuent and learned Oration delivered by him 
on the late anniversary of American Independence, at the request of the City 
Authorities of Salem; and that the Committee of Arrangements be authorised to 
request a copy for publication. 

Resolved, That the thanks of tlie City Council be presented to the Salem Light 
Infantry and Salem Mechanic Light Infantry Companies, for their prompt and 
efficient performance of Escort duty. 

Resolved, That the thanks of tiie City Council be presented to Col. H. K. 
Oliver, Chief Marshal, his Aids and Assistants, for their valuable services in 
arranging the civil procession. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be presented to the ofikiating 
Clergymen and the reader of the Declaration of Independence, for their services 
on this occasion. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be presented to those Ladies and 
Gentlemen composing and assisting the vokinteer Choir, for their correct and ap- 
propriate performances, and to the gentleman who wrote the Ode for that occa- 
sion. 

Board of Aldermen — Monday evening , July 11, 1842. 

The above Resolutions were read, and unanimously concurred in. 



ORATION. 



Fellow Citizens : 

In complying with the call of your municipal author- 
ities, to address you, on this anniversary, I have been influ- 
enced by a deep sense of the dignity, importance and so- 
lemnity of the occasion. The American Revolution, regard- 
ed as an event in the history of nations and of humanity, in 
the causes that led to it, and in the results that have flowed, and 
are still to flow from it, is a theme which may well command 
the contemplation of every philanthropic and devout mind ; 
and if the anniversary that commemorates it has ever been 
made an occasion for the utterance of narrow and partial 
views, of stale repetitions of the common-places of patriot- 
ism, and of partizan harangues, the fault has been, not in the 
day, but in the manner in which it has been observed. 

Whoever justly appreciates this anniversary, will find the 
tone of his thoughts and feelings rising, at once, far above the 
level of their ordinary condition, and becoming comprehen- 
sive and all-embracing. He will feel that every discord ought 
to be hushed, and every conflict of opinion or of policy sus- 
pended ; and that the indulgence of the animosities of faction, 
on this day, would be a sacrilegious violation of the sanctity 



widi uliicli tl>a1 Pinvi(lcii(<\ wliicli rules over men and na- 
tions, has stanij)ed it. 'Vha suji vvliicli rises uj)on our Fourth 
t»r July, oui^ht to shed its beams uj)on a united and grateful — 
ii[)on a happy and an adoring ]>eoj)Ie. The millions of Amer- 
ica ought to feel themselves to be one family. The only re- 
lation they s'lould recognize this day. is that of brotherhood. 
iSectarian and political lines of division should all be obliter- 
ated, and the whole people, with hearts every where beating 
in unison, should cherish and express one sentiment of deep- 
felt thankfulness for the blessings of the past, the privileges 
of the present, and the hopes of the future. It is proper that 
religious solemnities should be mingled with our rejoicings, 
for the occasion is truly and eminently a religious one. No 
]>ortion of the world's history is more signally marked by the 
interposition of a guiding and controlling divine hand, than 
that which we have met to commemorate. If the idea has 
any currency among us, that this anniversary is merely an 
occasion of noisy popular acclamation, or that it is adapted 
to awaken no higher exercises of the mind and heart than 
national vanity and pride, it only proves that those who en- 
tertain it have not yet apprehended the value of their institu- 
tions — have not sounded the depths of the privileges or the 
responsibilities assigned them, and have not read their histo- 
ry with eyes to discern that light from heaven which shines 
along its track. But every day that passes is leading to juster 
and nobler views. As our early annals recede into the more 
and more distant past, they not only become incrusted with 
the hoar of a reverend antiquity, but they disclose to our con- 
templation continually brightening evidence of that benignant 
Providence which from the very beginning has been steadily 
preparing the way for the grand results which have, in part, 
already been developed. Instead of its topics being worn 



out, instead of their hemming trilo and barren, I have no 
hesitation in predicting tliat this anniversary will hereafter he 
regarded with more and more interest, and invested with an 
ever-increasing dignity. 

The firing of guns and the ringing of hells, the glittering 
array of plumed ranks, and the inspiring strains of martial 
music, are all congenial to the occasion, hut they are not 
enough for the occasion. An intelligent and thoughtful peo- 
ple require, in addition to them, the exercises which we hav(^ 
assembled here to perform. Our minds need, not only to h<; 
excited with joy, hut to he led on in meditation. We desire 
to have our thoughts conducted to a clearer discernment of 
the sources from which our political blessings have been de- 
rived ; to loftier and more enlightened views of the obliga- 
tions that rest upon us ; to profounder convictions of the con- 
nection which the part we are called to perform has with the 
august purposes of Heaven ; and to a more stimulating and 
admiring perception of the glorious results that will ensue, to 
our posterity and to the world, if we perform that part faith- 
fully and well. 

I have offered these introductory remarks, my fellow citi- 
zens, because I wish you to know that, so far from feeling 
that there is any want of adaptation between my profession- 
al calling, and the discharge of the duty in this day's proceed- 
ings assigned to me by your municipal authorities, I full}' 
appreciate its high moral dignity, and its congeniality with 
the great ends of the religion of which I am a minister. The 
American clergy do not engage in the conflicts of domestic 
parties, but they are, as they ever have been, a patriotic body 
of men, and they possess, and will exercise, a right to mingle 
with their fellow countrymen, on equal terms, in the senti- 
ments and the observances of this day of grateful commemo- 



8 

ration, interesting alike to llie whole people. I obeyed the 
rail to appear before you, upon the express understanding 
that the arrangements should be conducted upon such com- 
prehensive principles as would embrace the whole body of 
my fellow citizens. The obligation has been faithfully exe- 
cuted. The audience is all that can be desired, the theme is 
great and noble, and if my ability were equal to my aspira- 
tions, such a view would be presented of the origin and pro- 
gress of American independence and liberty as would fill the 
hearts of all in this assembly to overflowing with the pro- 
foundest sentiments of patriotism, philanthropy, and piety. 

The early part of the seventeenth century was marked by 
a general interest, pervading the English nation, in the plant- 
ing and colonization of North America. The progress of 
civilization, under the quickening influence of commerce, had 
raised the great body of the people, of what are called the 
middle and lower conditions of life, to a point of elevation 
that rendered them dissatisfied and restive under the feudal 
institutions of a comparatively savage period. A combina- 
tion of circumstances had, long before, given a start and a 
momentum to the public mind of all Europe, greater than 
had ever been witnessed. The vast expeditions of the armies 
of Christendom to the plains of Asia had effectually broken 
the slumbers of the dark ages. The inventions of the mova- 
ble type and of the mariner's compass, and the earnest con- 
troversial struggles, reaching to the lowest depths of society, 
that led to the Protestant Reformation, had awakened the in- 
tellect, and let loose the curiosity, and inflamed the fancies 
of men, and, at the moment when these influences were work- 
ing with their liveliest and strongest force, the vision of a new 
world, emerging from the ocean's waves beyond the setting 
sun, rose upon the excited and enraptured gaze of the na- 



9 

tions. The strange, and, as was natural, highly drawn and 
exaggerated descriptions which voyagers to America carried 
back, of lovely islands, and fertile fields, and unfathomable 
forests, produced a wide and permanent impression upon the 
sentiments and the literature of Europe. The deeply laden 
galleons of Spain, bearing home uncounted millions of silver 
and gold, roused the emulation of all other countries, and of 
none more than of England. Her insular position, and the 
resulting character of her people, placed her in the front rank 
in all movements and enterprises of a maritime and commer- 
cial nature. 

A very different fortune, however, from that which Spain 
had experienced, awaited the English adventures of discovery 
and colonization in America. No mines opened glittering 
treasures to their eager search. No Eldorado hung down its 
golden fruit to the touch, or spread out its pavement of pre- 
cious stones beneath the feet, of English explorers. The 
northern portion of the continent, that assigned to them by 
the course of events, repulsed their storm-beaten vessels from 
a frowning and forbidding rock-bound and snow-clad coast. 
The track of their voyages was the theatre of wintry tem- 
pests, and the country itself was sterile, and cold, and covered 
with an inhospitable wilderness. Not finding the precious 
metals, another equally flattering and delusive vision took pos- 
session of their hearts. They were confident of being able 
to discover a passage, by a direct and expeditious route, to the 
rich Indies, of which the lands they had visited in America 
were considered as a bordering appendage. Many were the 
adventures, prompted by this expectation, all ending in ruin- 
ous disappointment. 

At length visionary fortune-hunters and gold-diggers relin- 
quished North America in despair, and thenceforth it was left 
2 



10 

to the exclusive contemplation of two very different classes of 
men. One was commercial adventurers, who had judgment 
and intelligence enough to be satisfied with such gains as the 
fisheries, and the products of the wilderness, would afford — 
the other non-conformists in religion, who looked abroad for 
shelter from the hierarchy at home. By these two classes, 
acting separately or conjointly, several attempts at colonization 
were made on the coast. In the year 1606 King James the 
First granted all the continent from the 45th to the 34th de- 
gi-ee of latitude to two mercantile companies, for purposes of 
colonization and traffic. One of these companies, belonging 
to London, had the southern portion, or Virginia, assigned 
them. The northern portion, or New England, was assign- 
ed to the other company, consisting of merchants In Ply- 
mouth. Many attempts were made to settle the country un- 
der the auspices of these two associations, but no great de- 
gree of success attended them. The Pilgrims, who came 
over in the Mayflower, had embarked under the auspices of 
the London, or Virginia company, but having, against their 
design, been landed within the Bay of Massachusetts, came 
under the jurisdiction of the New England, or Plymouth 
company, from which body, in 1630, they obtained a patent. 
Several other smaller settlements took place within the limits 
of the jurisdiction of the northern grant. 

In the year 1627 a very important change took place In the 
character of American colonization. An association of dis- 
tinguished gentlemen, living in and near Dorchester In Eng- 
land, purchased of the Plymouth company all that part of 
the continent from a point three miles south of Charles River 
to three miles north of the Merrimack, and extending, as all 
such grants then did, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. 
Some of these gentlemen were interested in the purchase 



11 

from motives of commercial gain, but the principal part of 
them, from a desire to secure a refuge for themselves and 
their dissenting brethren from the troubles and trials then im- 
pending over them in England. The purchase from the 
Plymouth company gave a right to the soil, but the powers of 
government over it could only be obtained by a royal charter, 
which was granted in March, 1628. This charter incorpo- 
rated the purchasers of the tract I have described, and con- 
ferred upon them ample and full powers of government. — ■ 
When assembled for business they were styled a Court, and 
they appointed their own Governor, Deputy Governor, and 
Assistants. John Endicott, who subsequently was called to 
the Chief Magistracy of the colony, by the popular | voice, 
for a greater number of years than any other individual has 
ever filled that office, was sent over to administer, as their 
agent, the affairs of the colony. 

In the mean time circumstances in England were render- 
ing the situation of nonconformists more and more uncom- 
fortable, and the hearts of many of them were turned to- 
wards the remote American wilderness for shelter from the 
gathering storm. The only insurmountable obstacle in the 
way of emigration was an unwillingness, on the part of men 
of influence and substance, to subject themselves, when re- 
moved across the Atlantic, to the inconveniences and wrongs 
to which they would, in all probability, be exposed from a 
government conducted by irresponsible persons remaining in 
England, and necessarily, therefore, destitute of all personal 
experience in the affairs, or personal knowledge of the cir- 
cumstances of so remote a plantation. This difficulty was 
vital, and if not removed, would have been fatal. There 
was one remedy, and only one, and that fortunately for the 
world was discovered and applied. 



12 

John Winthiop, with Sir Richard Saltonstall, and others, 
made known to the Court of Proprietors, that they would 
remove with their famihes to New England, as permanent 
settlers, provided that the charter itself, and the government 
under it, were removed with them. Let it be borne in mind 
that the incorporated company, to whom the territory had 
been granted by the crown, were invested by their patent 
and charter with all the powers of government over it. The 
question was, whether the colony in America should continue 
to be dependent upon the Court of Proprietors, assembled in 
London — in which event neither Winthrop nor any of his 
distinguished associates would consent to emigrate — or wheth- 
er the government of the colony should thenceforward be re- 
linquished and committed to those members of the company 
who should reside in America — in which event they were 
ready forthwith to embark. The question was, whether Brit- 
ish colonists in America should govern themselves, or be 
governed by a power remaining in England. The language 
of Winthrop and his associates was this — " rather than live 
in America, subject to a power in England, we prefer to en- 
dure persecution at home — but let us carry our charter with 
us, let us govern ourselves there, let us enjoy independence, 
and we will cheerfully abandon our fertile fields, and costly 
houses, and pleasant homes, and brave the dangers of the 
sea and the privations of the wilderness." The proposal 
was a startling one to those proprietors who had no intention 
to emigrate, but it was concluded that the prosperity of the 
colony would be so much promoted by being under a govern- 
ment, acquainted, from personal observation and experience, 
with its circumstances, as to render its acceptance expedient, 
and it was voted that the charter should be transferred to 



13 

America, and all its powers and functions be exercised and 
enjoyed there. 

Upon the decision of this question, in a body of merchants 
and private gentlemen, sitting in London, hung interests and 
results, as great and momentous, as were ever determined by 
Congresses, or Cabinets, or Councils of State. Had the 
proposal of Winthrop been declined, the prhneval wilderness 
might have continued to this day to have brooded over the 
surface of the American continent — a few feeble colonies 
might have lingered through a languishing existence, termi- 
nating in an Indian massacre, or in pestilence and famine — 
a few commercial factories might have been scattered along 
the shores, and a few fishermen and hunters might have fre- 
quented the coasts, or penetrated into the interior, but a na- 
tion of freemen never could have come into being. The trans- 
ference of that charter imparted to America the principle of 
Ufe, breathed over its fields and forests the spirit of indepen- 
dence, and made liberty every where a native of its hills and 
vallies. When Winthrop and his associates embarked with 
their charter for Massachusetts Bay, the auspicious destinies 
of this continent were unalterably fixed, the progress of hu- 
manity secured, and its prospects brightened to the end of 
time; and when, on the 12th of June, 1630, the ship Ara- 
bella, in which the precious freight was borne, came to an- 
chor in the harbour of Salem, the first age of American 
Independence began. 

The instrument by which all the rights and powers of 
government were claimed and exercised by the early colonists 
of Massachusetts Bay, described the territory it embraced as 
reaching from sea to sea. The description, although prompt- 
ed by ignorance of the dimensions of the then unexplored 
continent, is already beginning to wear the aspect of a 



14 

prophecy. The Atlantic and the Pacific oceans are the only 
barriers that can check the spread, or limit the extension, 
of the independent empire, upon which the Anglo Saxon 
race entered, when the arrival of the Arabella conferred the 
attributes of self-government upon America. 

For fiftyfive years the privileges of complete independence 
Were here enjoyed. The people elected their own legisla- 
tors and magistrates; their governor and officers of state, reg- 
ulated their own affairs, watched over their own institutions, 
and at their leisure securely laid the foundations of a free 
and happy commonwealth. The philosophical and thought- 
ful observer will recognize in their circumstances and history 
a combination of influences most curiously and wonderfully 
co-operating to perfect their education and preparation for 
the destinies their descendants are now fulfilling. 

The men vi^ho commenced this great work were singularly 
adapted to it. It was as truly as beautifully said of them, 
that " God sifted a whole nation that he might send choice 
grain over into this wilderness." They were learned, brave, 
just, and devout men. They had reached clearer and deeper 
views of true statesmanship 'than the founders of all other 
empires. They were the ripe fruits of an intellectual and 
religious developement, then taking place in England, and 
which carried the great body of that people, for a brief period, 
to a higher point than has ever been reached by them since. 
They were few in number, but their seclusion from the rest 
of the world, and the broad barrier of the Atlantic, sheltered 
them from assault ; and they well knew how, by education 
and religion, by securing the prevalence of industry, and 
virtue, of knowledge and piety, to render their posterity 
strong and unconquerable. The soil was rough and reluc- 
tant, but the labor, to which alone it would yield, was the 



15 

charm by which their rapidly advancing prosperity was pro- 
tected from corruption, debihty and decay. There were 
dangers surrounding them, and suffering and trial were largely 
mingled in their condition, but these things served only to 
consolidate their energies, and nerve their souls with fortitude 
and courage. The wilderness hung like a dark cloud, around 
their horizon, but its gloomy shadows deepened the sources 
of that sublime faith by which they were accustomed to look 
beyond all present evil, to a future brighter and happier day 
that would surely dawn upon a world redeemed from op- 
pression and sin. Every thing indeed served to strengthen 
their manly faculties, to harden them into invincibility, to 
render the love of independence the deepest passion of their 
souls, and to fit them to become the founders of a great 
republican empire. 

Here then, in these fifty-five years, covering the two first 
generations of the colonists of Massachusetts Bay, we behold 
the great Primary School of American Freedom. The founder 
of this school, and its first teacher was John Winthrop — 
an illustrious and venerable name. The Genius of American 
Independence, in surveying her own history, recognizes him 
as her First, and Washington as her Last, great champion. 
One began, the other completed, the work. There was a 
remarkable similarity in their characters and lives, in more 
than poetical, in providential, accordance, with the similarity 
of the exalted stations they occupied in the great p recess of 
humanity. 

Both of them were invested with a native dignity of mien 
and deportment, and a thoughtful, though courteous, gravity 
and seriousness of manners, which in early youth commanded ^ 
from all beholders, an admiration, confidence, and veneration, 
which intimacy and time constantly heightened. At the age 



16 

of eighteen Winthrop was appointed a justice of the peace, 
in his native county in England. At the same age Wash- 
ington was appointed a pubhc surveyor in Virginia. When 
Winthrop landed in Salem, on the 12th of June, 1630, and 
assumed the administration of an independent government 
in America, he, that day, entered upon the forty-fourth year 
of his age. When Washington assumed the command of 
the armies of United America, on Cambridge Common, on 
the 3d of July, 1775, he was also in his forty-fourth year. — 
Winthrop exhausted his estate in the service of the colony, 
and Wasliington refused to receive any pecuniary compensa- 
tion for his services in the War of Independence. They 
were each deeply impressed with a sense of the responsible- 
ness and solemnity of the positions they occupied, and, with 
what seems like an inspired foresight of the interest posterity 
would take in the operations they were called to conduct, 
both of them recorded, for the use of the future historian of 
their country, day by day, with sacred care, their actions and 
motives, and the course of events and affairs within the 
spheres of their jurisdiction. They were worthy of the 
glorious stations assigned them by Providence. And may 
their pure and excellent names be forever imprinted, in let- 
ters of light and love, on the admiring memories and grateful 
hearts of the American people, and of the friends of liberty 
and virtue, in all climes, and all ages ! Winthrop was eleven 
times chosen Governor of the colony he founded. His son 
and grandson were Governors of Connecticut, and one of his 
direct descendants, of the present generation, still scarcely 
more than a youth, has already placed himself among the 
first men of Massachusetts, and in the councils of the Union 
won the respect of the nation. He bears in his countenance 
a remarkable resemblance of his great ancestor, and it is not 



n 

strange, it is natural and right, tiiat tiie same virtues and 
traits of cliaracter, which endeared the First Governor of 
Massachusetts to the people, should invest the name, as 
they have already done, in our day, with its ancient hon- 
ors, by concentrating upon it the popular confidence and af- 
fection. 

During the civil wars in England the attention of the nation 
was exclusively directed to its own domestic condition, and 
there was neither time nor inclination to interfere with a re- 
mote and humble colony in America. The Puritans, of course, 
had no disposition to impose restrictions upon their brethren 
here, and the Royalists were glad to be so effectually rid of 
them. It was owing to these causes that such perfect inde- 
pendence of the mother country existed in Massachusetts, 
during its first age. And I would here observe that similar 
privileges were, at the same time, enjoyed, with similar re- 
sults in the character and spirit of the people, in all the other 
New England colonies. But it was the design of Providence 
to render the idea of independence dear, by its deprivation, 
as well as by its possession. In 1684 the charter was taken 
away, and Massachusetts reduced to a subject Province. But 
the period of fifty-five years, during which the satisfactions 
and the privileges of self-government had been experienced, 
stamped the character of the people forever. Two suc- 
cessive generations had been thoroughly saturated with the 
spirit of liberty. It had become mingled with their very 
heart' s-blood, and ever after naturally descended in their race 
as a constitutional and inherent element. No oppression 
could eradicate, and no lapse of time could exhaust it. The 
tree had taken root deep in the soil, fastening itself inextri- 
'cably to the primitive granite of the globe itself; its trunk 
3 



18 

was clothed with a rugged strength that no storms nor hurrn 
ranes could break or bend ; and brandies were put forth 
which will surely spread until the whole continent reclines 
beneath their peaceful shade. 

The abrogation of the charter of Massachusetts was one 
of the first fruits of the restoration of the Stuarts to the 
English throne, on the ruins of the cause of civil and religious 
liberty. It was resolved by that despotic dynasty to trample 
out the last spark of freedom on both sides of the Atlantic, 
Regular troops Avere, for the first time, sent over to the 
colonies to overawe and enslave the people. Their several 
governments were abolished. Their Houses of Assembly 
were dissolved, and all power was concentrated in the 
unrestrained hands of a Governor General appointed by the 
crown. Few in number as the colonists then were, and un- 
bounded as was the arbitrary power of the mother country, 
such a destruction of their most sacred rights was not unre- 
sistingly borne, and it is to the honor of the people of Essex 
county that no where was the resistance bolder, and no where 
were such heavy penalties incurred in consequence. But 
open and general rebellion was vain. To attempt it then 
would have been insanity, and a suffering and indignant peo- 
ple had no alternative but to bide its time. 

About three years after this tyrannical system of coloni- 
al administration had been established a rumor reached 
Boston that the Prince of Orange had landed in England 
to dethrone James the Second, and before waiting for the 
confirmation of the rumor, or the result of the expedition, 
the irrepressible spirit of the people burst forth, they rushed 
from all quarters into Boston, seized the Royal Governor 
in his fort and imprisoned him there, and with acclama- 
tions of unbounded joy, reinstated their charter govern- 



19 

ment, called back old Simon Bradstreet to the chair of state, 
and again for a brief period enjoyed the sweets of liberty and 
independence. 

This daring movement proves the eflicacy of the training 
the people of Massachusetts had experienced under the old 
charter. They had become already true sons of liberty, and 
feared to meet no danger in her cause. And what a venera- 
ble and sublime spectacle it was to see Bradstreet re-appear 
on the public stage ! lie had come over to x\nierica, then a 
young man, in company with Winthrop ; he had lived, and 
been a conspicuous actor, through the whole period of the 
early liberties of New England ; he was occupying, by the 
choice of the people, the chief magistracy of the colony when 
the charter was abrogated ; and nov/, although eighty-six 
years of age, the venerable patriot is again at his post. Brave 
old man ! What a spirit must have been enshrined in that 
aged form ! With what a venerable dignity must those white 
locks have been crowned ! Happy the people who were able 
to command the services, and to appreciate the wisdom, of 
such a patriarch ! It is an interesting circumstance to us 
that this Nestor of New England closed his life in Salem. — 
He died in 1697, having reached the gieat age of 94 years. 
His ashes rest in our soil. 

New England had now become too important an element 
in the colonial system of Great Britain to remain any longer 
overlooked. A commercial policy had been contrived and 
instituted by the great statesmen of the Commonwealth, by 
which ultimate ascendency over all the European nations was 
secured to England, and the people, as well as the govern- 
ment, of that country, appreciated the importance of adher- 
ing to it. It was based upon the principle of a strict and 
rigid conUol over all colonies by the administration of the 



20 

home government. In pursuance of tliis policy, King- Wil- 
liam refused to allow Massachusetts to continue under the 
restored and original charter, but established a new one, by 
which the colonial government, while in many respects it 
was rendered more liberal than it was before, Avas brought 
effectually under the constant oversight and superintendence 
of the crown. 

From this time, until the opening of the Revolutionary 
war, a period of more than eighty years, the people endured, 
without ever for a moment being reconciled to it, subjection 
to a foreign government. During all that long and weary 
period the hope of independence continued to burn, with an 
undying flame, in their breasts. Absolute and entire separa- 
tion from the hierarchies and the monarchies of the old world 
was the essential, and living, and central principle of all their 
associations, customs, and institutions, and so far as they were 
able, in every part of the government that remained to them, 
in their towns, and neighborhoods, and churches, and military 
organization, in the education of their children, and in all their 
private and domestic spheres of influence and action, they kept 
their eyes sleeplessly fixed upon this one point. They were 
resolved to shut out foreign influence, and to preserve their in- 
dividuality as a people — and they cherished, as a religious be- 
lief, the assured hope that the independence, which their 
fathers had enjoyed, would be restored to their children. It 
was at once, a source of many of the errors into which they fell, 
and a pleasing refuge from their trials, sufferings and sorrows, 
to apply to themselves the language of the Old Testament 
scriptures. As the Israelites, in their exile, rememberea 
Zion, so did they remember their ancient liberties ; and as the 
captive Hebrew was filled with a glorious hope of the resto- 
ration of Judah; so did the New Englandcr dwell, widi de- 



21 

llglitful assurance, upon the vision of a brighter tUiy to dawn 
upoti Ills posterity. 

No man can interpret the history of this country, no man 
can trace the spirit of American liberty to its fountains, who 
does not take into view the operation of the first charter upon 
the pubhc character, while it lasted, and the effects produced 
by its abrogation. The mournful recollection of those days 
of independence wore a deep channel into the hearts of the 
people, and made them organically incapable of resting under 
oppression. The old men transmitted to their sons the 
sacred memory of that first age of liberty, and in the tradi- 
tionary associations of the people a cluster of exciting senti- 
ments gathered around it. It has not even yet been entirely 
obliterated from the New England heart. Go to the intelli- 
gent farmer, who cultivates acres and dwells beneath a roof, 
transmitted to him from an early generation, and see how his 
eye will kindle at the name of the " Old Charter." Go to that 
true descendant of one of the most honored of the first plant- 
ers of Massachusetts, and his absence, on this occasion, in 
the public service, authorizes me, perhaps, thus particularly to 
allude to him — go to your present Representative in the Halls 
of Congress, and try the experiment upon him. His warm and 
generous spirit will respond to every patriotic appeal, but 
mention in his hearing the "Old Charter," and his Puritan 
blood will glow with additional warmth, his New England 
heart will beat with a quicker and fuller pulse, and his frank 
and manly eloquence will rise to a loftier level, in tlic de- 
fence of your rights, and of the rights and glory of in- 
dependent America. 

The spirit of liberty, whos(3 origin and history in ISIassa- 
chusetts, and in New England, I have now sketched, gradu- 
ally pervaded all the British American colonies, and con.t-li- 



22 

tuted u bond of sympathy and union between them. Occa" 
sionally in each one of them occurrences took place, which 
made them feel the oppressive operation of the foreign, and 
liccessarily arbitrary because foreign, power that held them in 
subjection. In tlie mean while their numbers were increas- 
ing, and all things conspired to strengthen their principles, 
deepen their entiiusiasm for liberty, and render them resolute 
and persevering, hardy, brave, and invincible. The Divine 
superintendence, which the careful observer discerns from 
the beginning, as the great day of final trial approached, be- 
came more and more signal, and visible. Indeed the pillar 
of cloud and of fire was not more clearly seen, guiding the 
Israeiitish host, through the wilderness, back to their primi- 
tive home, than Vtas the Divine Hand in preparing the way 
for the American Revolution. And in this, as in ail the other 
operations of Providence, the passions of men were made, 
most strangely, without their knowledge, and against their 
design, to work out the purposes of God. 

TJie jealousies and ambition of princes and courts on the 
continent of Europe were the ultimate causes of wars which 
involved tJie whole body of civilized and christian nations, ar- 
rayed according to their respective attachments or antipathies. 
In these wars England and France were found confronting 
each other, and it was so ordered that the grapple between 
them took place on this continent. The result w as the com- 
plete extirpation of the French power in North America, 
which result was an absolutely necessary preliminary to the 
American Revolution. It is obvious that if the struggle for 
independence had been made by the British colonies, while 
the Canadas remained under the dominion of France, it would 
have been equally disastrous and fatal, wheth.er successful or 
not — for. if successful, it would have been found to be no 



23 

more nor better thaii a transference from the arms of Englana 
to the arms of France. 

But the old French wars, as they are called, answered a 
still higher purpose, in preparing the country for the war of 
Independence. They gave the people of the tlien British col- 
onies that experience in military afiairs which was absolutely 
necessary, but which, in no other way, could have been ob- 
tained. England sent over her most experienced generals to 
conquer Canada from France. They executed their orders — 
but they did more ; they taught the subject colonics of 
England how to achieve their own independence. The vic- 
tories, which aggrandized, dismembered the British empire. 
In the eyes of the statesmen of that period, the dying triumph 
of Wolfe, on the plains of Abraham, secured all North 
America to the throne of England. But in the retrospect of 
the historian, at the present day, that event is regarded as 
having completed the process by which all the colonies of 
Great Britain were prepared to slip from her grasp, forever. 

It thus appears how, while, in this contest, man was ac- 
complishing one purpose, God was accomplishing another. 
The armies of liberty were silently in training, and skilful 
commanders and illustrious warriors ripening for their work. 
Under the walls of Louisburg, in the wilderness, and on the 
snows of the north, Prescott, and Stark, and Putnam were 
acquiring and exercising those traits of heroism which after- 
wards enabled them to inspire their fellow citizens with their 
own indomitable courage, and to lead wherever the bravest 
dared to follow. But beneath the forests and behind the 
mountains of Virginia, what a beautiful and glorious specta- 
cle we behold 1 

If the time has come for the colonies of Great Britain in 
America to assert their independence, and if, in vindicating 



24 

\t, they arc to encounter the fiercest wrath, wleldhig the 
mighty power of that great empire, it is evident that nothing 
short of the highest imaginable degree of wisdom and virtue, 
of fortitude and faith, will be sufficient to guide them through 
the perilous and all but desperate conflict. The leader of 
the armies of America must unite the best and noblest qual- 
ities of a warrior, and a statesman, and a patriot, or the cause 
will be lost. 

What was needed was provided. Long before the Revo- 
lution broke out, a leader was raised up and perfectly fitted 
for the great office. 

Among the mountain passes of the Blue Ridge and the 
AUeghanies, a youth is seen employed in the manly and in- 
vigorating occupations of a surveyor, and awakening the 
admiration of the hardy backwoodsmen and savage chief- 
tains by the strength and endurance of his frame, and the 
resolution and energy of his character. In his stature and 
conformation he is a noble specimen of a man. In the vari- 
ous exercises of muscular power, on foot and in the saddle, 
he excels all competitors. His admirable physical traits are 
in perfect accordance with the properties of his mind and 
heart, and over all, crowning all, is a beautiful, and in one so 
young, a strange dignity of manners and of mien, a calm se- 
riousness, a sublime self-control, which at once compels the 
veneration, attracts the confidence, and secures the favor of 
all who behold him. That youth is the leader whom Heaven 
is preparing to conduct America through her approaching 
trial. As we see him voluntarily relinquishing the enjoy- 
ments, and luxuries, and ease of the opulent refinement in 
which he was born and bred, and choosing the perils and 
hardships of the wilderness; as we follow him, fording 
swollen streams, climbing rugged mountains, breasting the 



25 

forest storms, wading through snow drifts, sleeping in the 
open air, living upon the coarse food of hunters and of In- 
dians, we trace, with devout admiration, the divinely appoint- 
ed education he was receiving to enable him to meet and en- 
dure the fatigues, exposures and privations of the war of In- 
dependence. Soon he is called to a more public sphere of 
action, on the same theatre, and we again follow him in his 
romantic adventures as he traversed the far-off western wil- 
derness, a special messenger to the French commander on 
the Ohio, and afterwards when he led forth the troops of 
Virginia in the same direction, or accompanied the ill-starred 
Braddock to the blood-stained banks of the Monongahela. 
Every where we see the hand of God conducting him into 
danger, that he might extract from it the wisdom of an ex- 
perience not otherwise to be attained, and develope those 
heroic qualities by which alone danger and difficulty can be 
surmounted, but all the while covering him, as with a shield. 
When we think of him, at midnight and in mid- winter, 
thrown from a frail raft, into the deep and angry waters of a 
wide and rushing western river, thus separated from his only 
companion through the wilderness, with no human aid for 
miles and leagues around him, buffeting its rapid current, and 
struggling through driving cakes of ice — when we behold the 
stealthy savage, whose aim, as against all other marks, is un- 
erring, pointing his rifle deliberately at him, and firing, over 
and over again — when we see him riding through showers of 
bullets on Braddock's fatal field, and reflect that never during 
his whole Ufe was he wounded or even touched by a hostile 
force, do we not feel that he was guarded by an Unseen 
Hand ? Yes, that sacred person was guarded by an Unseen 
Hand, warding off every danger. No peril by flood or by 
field was permitted to extinguish a life consecrated to the 
4 



26 

hopes of humanity, and to the purposes of heaven. His mil- 
itary preparation was completed by being entrusted with 
the defence of the frontiers of Virginia and the neighboring 
colonies, — a command, which in the difficulties and embar- 
rassments with which it was crowded, in its general charac- 
ter, and more especially in the wide-spread and incessant 
oversight, and forethought, and prudence, and patience it re- 
quired, most remarkably resembled, was indeed a precise 
epitome of, the service he afterwards discharged as Comman- 
der in Chief of the forces of United America, 

The warrior is now ready, but the statesman remains to 
be prepared. He accordingly resigned his commission, and 
retired to private and civil life. Although not then quite 
twenty-seven years of age, he had won a splendor of reputa- 
tion, and a completeness of experience, as a military man, 
such as had never before been acquired in America. For 
more than sixteen years he rested from his warfare, amid the 
shades of Mount Vernon, ripening his mind by reading and 
reflection, increasing his knowledge of practical affairs, enter- 
ing into the whole experience of a citizen, at home, on his 
farm, and as a delegate to the colonial Assembly ; and when, 
at last, the war broke out, and the unanimous voice of the 
Continental Congress invested him, as the exigency required, 
with almost unbounded authority, as their Commander in 
Chief, he blended, although still in the prime of his life, in 
the mature bloom of his manhood, the attributes of a sage 
with those of a hero. A more perfectly fitted and furnished 
character has never appeared, on the theatre of human ac- 
tion, than when, reining up his war-horse, beneath the ma- 
jestic and venerable elm, still standing at the entrance of the 
old W^atertown road upon Cambridge Common, George 
Washington unsheathed his sword, and assumed the com- 



mand of the gathering armies of American hberty. Those 
who liad despaired, when tlicy belield their cliiel', despaired 
110 more. The very aspect of his person and countenance, 
concurred with the history of his hfe, in impressing their 
hearts with a deep conviction that God was with him, in the 
exercise of a pecuhar guardianship, and that in liis hands 
their cause was safe. 

Of course it will not be expected of me, after having so 
nearly approached the limits of the occasion, to enter, at 
large, upon the history of the War of American Independ- 
ence. Open resistance to both the military and civil power 
of Great Britain began in this place. Here the people first 
rose against the royal troops. When the march of Col. Les- 
lie was resolutely intercepted, and his further progress forbid- 
den, by Col. Pickering at the head of the militia and minute 
men of this and the surrounding towns, at the bridge over 
our North River, it was then discovered that the people had 
considered, and were prepared for, the worst that could be- 
fal them in maintaining their rights.* Here too the independ- 
ent commonwealth of Massachusetts came into existence. 
It was fitting that it should have been so. In our harbor 
Winthrop landed with the charter that secured independence 
to the early colony, and it was but renewing the ancient in- 
terest and glory of the spot, when the representatives of the 
people, sitting here as a House of Assembly convened by a 
royal Governor, resolved themselves, by a solemn act, into a 
Provincial Congress, thus severing Massachusetts from the 
British crown forever.f When the first blow was struck by 
the royal forces in their march upon Lexington and Concord, 
our gallant neighbors of Dan vers, rushing to the field from the 
most distant point, were in the thickest of the fight, and con- 

*Appenclix A. tA|'pcii<Jix B. 



28 

tribiited the blood of Essex men, among the largest propor- 
tions, to the precious sacrifice offered up, on that glorious and 
momentous day. Throughout the whole war, a native and a 
citizen of Salem was by the side of the commander in chief, 
sharing in his counsels, and possessing his confidence. In 
having thus enjoyed and deserved the constant friendship of 
Washington, in war and in peace, in the camp and in the 
cabinet, Timothy Pickering secured a glory, for which John 
Randolph declared in Congress that he would gladly surren- 
der all his own riches and honors. But we require no testi- 
mony from abroad to lead us to do justice to the memory of 
that true patriot, that genuine republican, that honest man, 
at once the Aristides and the Cincinnatus of America. 

But it was not on the land alone that our citizens distin- 
guished themselves, in that great contest. Indeed it was to 
have been expected that the adventurous and daring spirit, 
which, from the first settlement of the place, has marked the 
mariners of Salem, and enabled them to lead and to open the 
way in every branch of the foreign commerce of the country, 
would be prompt to show itself in a struggle, as that most em- 
phatically was, to secure to our ships the liberty of the seas. 
The intrepid and patriotic seamen of this and the neigh- 
boring ports performed prodigies of valor, and gave evidence 
of that extraordinary naval prowess, which is now an ac- 
knowledged American characteristic. 

The history of the war of Independence, as maintained on 
the ocean, can never be wholly recovered from oblivion. 
Many of its incidents exist only in the memories of aged 
men, who are dropping from life, day by day, without leav- 
ing a record behind them. If a simultaneous eflfort were 
forthwith made, in all our maritime towns, to gather up what 
still may be within reach, the whole would constitute a body 



29 

of adventures and feats, such as could not have been exe- 
cuted or imagined except by a people, uniting unbounded en- 
terprize, with the most glowing patriotism, and the most ro- 
mantic valor. 

Among the naval heroes of that day, none were superior 
to Captain Harraden of this place. He fought some of the 
most desperate actions, and achieved some of the most won- 
derful triumphs, which the ocean has ever witnessed. In 
private life he was amiable and upright. His temper was 
mild, and his manners gentle ; but on the quarter deck, and 
amid the thunders of battle, the great and commanding ener- 
gies of his noble nature were gloriously displayed ; the more 
imminent the peril, the more terrific the scene, the more per- 
fect his self-command, and calm composure, and serene in- 
trepidity. He was not only brave himself, but he made all 
around him brave also. So evident and certain was it that 
he knew no fear, that fear vanished from the breasts of all 
under his command. 

This consummate and extraordinary courage, by thus 
imparting itself to his whole crew, made him invincible 
against all odds, and gave him, as was justly observed, by 
one who understood his character and history, "a name of 
terror on the ocean." The following was one of his many 
heroic achievements in that war. In the spring of 1780, he 
sailed from Salem to Bilboa in the General Pickering, a ves- 
sel which had been built for a cruizer, but, on this voyage, 
was furnished with a letter of marque, and loaded with a 
cargo of sugar and tobacco. She was of about 100 tons, 
was armed with 16 six-pounders, with a crew of 45, men and 
boys. When near the coast of Spain, he fell in with and 
captured a privateer, of 22 nine-pounders and 60 men. 
Captain Harraden put on board of her a prize crew, under 



30 

the command of the late Jonathan Carnes of this place, there- 
by reducHig, of course, his own crew to less than 40, all told. 
He was still further weakened and embarrassed by having to 
take care of nearly twice that number of prisoners. About 
a week afterwards an English ship, mounting 42 guns, with 
140 men, came up with the prize and recaptured her. Not- 
withstanding the unparallelled disparity of force. Captain 
Harraden gave battle to her, and after a desperate contest, 
compelled her to seek safety in flight. Upon finding that, 
owing to her superior sailing, he could not overtake her, he 
gave up the pursuit, returned, deliberately retook his prize, 
and carried her safely into port. One of the venerable sur- 
vivors of the crew of the General Pickering, on that occasion, 
Mr. Robert Cowan, of this city, says, in describing the ac- 
tion, tliat Harraden's vessel, while engaged in this conflict 
with an enemy so vastly her superior, "looked like a long- 
boat by the side of a ship." The battle occurred about the 
dawn of day, near the Spanish coast. An immense con- 
course of spectators, amounting, as was supposed, to nearly 
one hundred thousand, assembled along the shore, in boats, 
and on the hills, during the action ; and before Captain Har- 
raden, with his prize, had been at anchor half an hour, one 
could walk a mile from his ship by stepping from one 
boat to another. So great was the enthusiasm of admiration 
with which the battle and the victory had been witnessed, 
that when he landed, he was surrounded by this vast throng 
of strangers and foreigners, and carried by them in triumph 
to a populous city in the neighborhood, where lie was 
welcomed with public and unbounded honors. Another 
person, who was wqth him in battle, says that " he fought 
with an energy and determination that seemed superhu- 
man," and that although in the most exposed positions, 



31 

" where the shot flew around him in thousands, lie was all 
the while as cahii and steady as amidst a shower of snow- 
flakes." During the war he captured more than a thousand 
guns from the ships of the enemy. Jonathan Harraden 
was born in Gloucester, and died in Salem in 1803, in his 
fifty-ninth year, and never should the people of this place as- 
semble to commemorate the war of Independence, without 
bearing in honored and affectionate remembrance the name 
of this dauntless hero and virtuous citizen. 

The conflict between Britain, struggling to retain the 
brightest jewel in her crown, and America, to secure the in- 
dependence for which she had become prepared, was long 
and exhausting, desperate and bloody. The whole continent 
from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico was the theatre of the 
strife, and after eight years of alternating success, the appeal 
to the God of Battles, which had been so solemnly registered 
in the Declaration of Independence, was decided from on 
high. Great Britain was compelled to relinquish all claim 
over her revolted but victorious colonies, Washington sur- 
rendered back his sword, and America was free. 

Such, my fellow citizens, is a sketch of the train of causes 
and events by which the United States of America were ush- 
ered into the family of independent nations. The conse- 
quences that are to flow from this result are vast, and mighty. 
The consideration of them is a theme so grand and seductive 
that it would be delightful to expatiate upon it. 

The resistance of the old thirteen colonies to the encroach- 
ments of the mother country, not only secured their own in- 
dependence, but taught a lesson which has never been for- 
gotten by the councils of the British crown. It has taught 
them not to trample upon their foreign dependencies, but to 
treat them with paternal liberality, to respect in them the 



32 

spirit of liberty, and to leave to them, in as large a measure 
as possible, the privileges of self-government. The vast and 
ever expanding colonial system of that empire, instead of be- 
ing kept under the foot of the government at home, as it 
would have been, had not America resisted, is every where 
permitted to exercise, more or less, the powers of self-govern- 
ment, and to breathe the invigorating air of freedom. At 
this moment, if encroachments like those which the united 
colonies resisted in 1775, should be attempted by Great 
Britain upon either of her Provinces on our northern or east- 
ern border, they would be as promptly and resolutely met 
there, as they were here. England is steadily including re- 
gion after region in the embrace of her dominion. And it is 
the American Revolution that has caused the spirit of liberty 
to follow the march of her armies, so that wherever she 
plants her standard, there a new territory is secured to the 
domain of freedom. 

The successful issue of the American Revolution might 
be shown to have doubled, at once, and ultimately to 
have indefinitely multiplied, the forces at work in the 
world in favor of liberty and reform. It has secured the 
final prevalence of our language and of free institutions 
throughout the globe. Two of the first rate powers of the 
world now speak that language ; they are planted on opposite 
continents ; one is gathering the islands and the regions of 
the old world within the pale of her empire by colonization 
and conquest, and the other is expanding over the new world 
by the peaceful process of a confederated union ; and 
wherever either is established, there freedom must finally pre- 
vail. And both by commerce, and philanthropy, are carry- 
ing the lights of civilization and Christianity to every quarter 
and portion of the earth. 



33 

But I must confine myself, during the few moments that 
remain, to a brief consideration of the effect of the estabhsh- 
ment of American Independence upon ourselves, and to the 
inculcation of one or two of the great duties of Republican 
patriotism. 

For sixty years the people of the United States have been 
in the full enjoyment and responsible exercise of an inde- 
pendent self-government. What are the sensations, which 
a review of the manner in which they have borne this trust 
awakens in our breasts ? The separation from England, in 
itself, did nothing immediately and absolutely for the great 
cause of human rights among us. It committed that cause 
entirely to our own hands, for good or for ill, as we should be 
found faithful or faithless. How has it been with us ? 

It cannot be denied that, in some respects, the people of the 
United States have not answered the sanguine expectations of 
the highest philanthropy. They are human, and of course im- 
perfect, creatures ; they have passions and interests, and these 
passions and interests have perverted their judgments, and 
darkened their consciences, as they ever have done, and ever 
will do so long as they exist in the breast of man. Prejudices, 
delusions, and blinding excitements have floated over us, and 
cast their shadows upon our land, as they do upon every land. 
Selfishness, party spirit, narrow projects, sectional bigotry, per- 
sonal jealousies, and mad and treacherous ambition, have infect- 
ed our counsels, impaired our happiness, and retarded our pros- 
perity. The spirit of christian love, charity, and justice, has 
not yet been infused into the hearts of the people, in sufficient 
strength, to control the exercise of the sovereignty they are 
acknowledged to possess. Measures are sometimes adopted 
and sustained, which violate that spirit, and institutions still 
exist and are upheld, in strange and utter contrast and 
5 



54 

conflict with it. The patriot and the philanthropist finds 
much in our condition over which to drop the tear of sorrow 
and shame, and for which to ofler a prayer to heaven that its 
just judgments may not fall upon us. 

But when, on the other hand, we consider the wasting and 
depraving effect of the long war of independence ; the vari- 
ety of the materials which constituted the original thirteen 
states ; the inexperience of some of them in the work of self- 
government ; the unformed condition of things in most of the 
new states which, while in the very infancy of their social ex- 
istence, have been clothed with the full powers of equal mem- 
bers of the confederacy ; the vast and perpetual influx of 
foreigners, strangers, at first, to the habits and genius of the 
country, and filled with romantic extravagancies of expecta- 
tion, and fanciful political speculations, which years of expe- 
rience and observation are required to reduce to the dimen- 
sions of sober wisdom and practicable truth ; the baleful and 
disastrous institutions, at war with the spirit of freedom, 
as well as with the spirit of the gospel, which, most un- 
fortunately, were inserted and fastened into the frame-work 
of society, against the will of the people, in the days of their 
colonial dependence ; the low point of civilization, compared 
with that to which education and religion are destined to lift 
the race, which even the most advanced portions of the coun- 
try have yet reached ; and the passions and weaknesses to 
which humanity, at the best, is liable — when we consider all 
these things fairly and fully, the conclusion must, I think, 
result, that it is a just occasion of patriotic pride, of grateful 
wonder, and of devout admiration, that so much has been 
avoided, of evil, and so much attained, of good. 

Through a period of more than half a century, during 
which all other nations have been convulsed, and all other 



35 

attempts at self-government have failed, the great experiment 
has, here, been steadily in progress ; it has survived, and glo- 
riously surmounted, the assaults of enemies from abroad, and 
of faction, and dissension, and insurrection within its own 
bosom ; through storm and through sunshine the Republic has, 
all the while, been extending its borders and swelling its mil- 
lions ; and, notwithstanding our just complaints, and bitter dis- 
appointments, there is ground for encouragement, that expe- 
rience and time, the constant circulation of knowledge, and the 
inculcation of Christianity under its various denominations, are 
gradually raising the better principles of our countrymen into 
a preponderating ascendancy over the evil principles which 
have in some instances, and to some extent, misled them, and 
for hope, that the interests of peace, order, freedom, and 
righteousness, will ultimately flourish under the shield, which 
the expanding union of these multiplying states is spreading 
over the North American continent. 

Let us, my fellow citizens, cherish this hope ; let us cherish it 
sacredly. If it is kept bright and warm in our hearts, it will 
prove an energetic and effective element of its own fulfihnent. 
And why should we doubt the final triumphs of liberty and 
righteousness ? We might doubt if they were the cause of man 
alone — but they are not the cause of man alone, they are the 
cause of God. He stands engaged, pledged, to them. They 
have heretofore been sustained by his signal favor. His voice, 
uttered forth through all the Past, calls upon us to place a con- 
fident hope in the Future. When we reflect that this wide 
continent was reserved and concealed from the world until 
the feudal institutions of Europe had passed their culminating 
point, and men were ready for a better order of things — that 
then the veil was lifted from the bosom of the Atlantic, and 
a new and broad field here opened for the last trial of hu- 



36 

manity ; tliat the choicest spirits of a choice age were select- 
ed to conduct it ; and, as I have endeavored to show, that a 
Providential guidance, hke an arm stretched down from the 
skies, has conducted the whole train of things from the very 
beginning — when we consider all this, and reflect that God ia 
mighty and not to be baffled by the rebellious power, or re- 
bellious passions of his creatures, we cannot allow ourselves 
to imagine for a moment that his providential care, as thus 
displayed, will fail of its purpose. 

It is as certain, as the concurring testimony of nature and 
revelation can make it, that the Almighty Father designs to 
render this earth, at last, the happy abode of nations and of 
men dwelling together in peace and love. To doubt the 
progress of humanity, is, to me, the same, as to doubt the 
Divine Power and Wisdom and Goodness. To say that lib- 
erty can be utterly overthrown, and the just rights of man 
forever trampled in the dust, strikes upon my ears as nothing 
short of infidelity and impiety. But if we believe that the 
cause of humanity, as such, the world over, is to be promoted, 
why should we doubt that its progress here will be as rapid 
as elsewhere ? With all our faults, and all our misfortunes, 
it is still a truth which ought never to be overlooked, and 
which it would be as audacious to deny, as it is ungrateful to 
forget, that no government, ever invented, has worked so 
well, as that wonderful and beautiful system which the 
framers of the Constitution of the American Union contrived, 
and successfully recommended to the states and people — 
preserving, as it does, the local sovereignty of the several 
members of the confederacy, while, for purposes common to 
them all, it consolidates them into one compact and vigorous 
empire. It has proved itself admirably adapted to collect and 
concentrate the moral and physical force of the nation against 



37 

a foreign enemy; and recent events have most gloriously sliown 
the self-sustaining energy which remains even in the smallest 
states of the confederacy. Occasional jars, and interferences, 
and perplexities, and threatening dangers, arise, but they 
belong to human things, and no where, beneath the sun, can 
we rationally expect entirely to avoid them. Yes, my fellow 
countrymen, let faith and hope be the pillars of our patriot- 
ism as of our piety. The blessings we enjoy, as citizens of 
this free land, will assuredly descend, with a tide of ever in- 
creasing depth and width, to our posterity. When we look 
into the past, we see the hand of God laying the foundations 
of the temple of our liberties, and when we look into the fu- 
ture, the depths of its boundless vistas are irradiated by the 
assurance that He will never permit the weakness or the 
wickedness of man to overthrow it. 

The subject we have been considering, the train of thought 
that has been presented and suggested, showing the peculiar 
connection of our history with the Providence of God, leads 
me to one great fundamental principle, which ought always 
to be boi-ne in mind, and which must be indelibly stamped, 
by recent occurrences, upon every benevolent heart, and ev- 
ery reflecting mind. If God is working with us, we must 
only use such instruments and means as he will approve. 
To resort to any other means will, of course, dissolve the alli- 
ance, and leave us to our ruin. God works with moral means 
in conducting his administration of the affairs of men, and up- 
on such means exclusively must we depend for the advance- 
ment of the interests of political liberty and social reform. 
The forces, that wrought the foundations of our system of 
society and government, were moral in their nature, and so 
must those forces be, that are employed to rear its superstruc- 
ture, and extend its accommodations, and rectify its defects. 



38 

It ought to be the solemn determination of the whole 
American people, that mere brute force shall never be per- 
mitted to be employed as an instrument of political any more 
than of moral or religious reform. I doubt not that such is 
already the settled determination of public sentiment. The 
liberty that all enjoy, even the humblest and lowliest, in these 
free states of the American Union, makes hfe too sweet to jus- 
tify its sacrifice in the pursuit of an imaginary or real enlarge- 
ment of that liberty ; and the sentiment of benevolence has be- 
come too strong to allow any among us to tolerate the idea of 
dipping our hands in a brother's blood for such a purpose. 
There is not, I rejoice to believe, a man in this community 
who would sanction the employment of means, that would 
involve the death or the bloodshed of a fellow citizen, to effect 
a change in the government of our own state, and if any sym- 
pathy has been directed, from this quarter, to those who have 
made such an attempt elsewhere, it has been owing to an un- 
reflecting and hasty impulse of the spirit of liberty, springing 
from a misapprehension of the case. What I now say on 
this subject, let it, therefore, be observed, is not designed as 
a rebuke of any of our immediate fellow citizens, but for the 
purpose of more deeply impressing upon our own minds sen- 
timents of momentous importance which we all cherish, and 
of giving a distinct utterance to an appeal, in behalf of those 
sentiments, which, with one heart and one voice, we would 
address to our fellow countrymen of every other city and 
town in the land. , 

The experience of nations and the laws of human nature 
concur in proclaiming that, if freemen draw the sword upon 
each other, for the professed purpose of enlarging their lib- 
erty, they will be freemen no more. A military despotism, 
resting on the worst passions of our nature, is sure to re» 



39 

suit from an attempt, in a free state, by the use of violent 
means, to obtain a political end. Parties may rage, and 
struggle for ascendancy as earnestly and vehemently as they 
will, and a clear field ought to be left to them, but the mo- 
ment a deadly w^eapon is touched, or brute force in any form 
is employed to obtain power, let a universal voice of condem-' 
nation and indignation rise from the whole people. 

The patriots of the Revolution deprecated the introduction 
of military force in the controversy between the colonies and 
the mother country. This was one of the grievances set 
forth in the Declaration of American Independence. They 
resorted to the sword only as the last alternative, in self-de- 
fence, against foreign troops, after those troops had struck the 
first blow, and, as I have shown in this discourse, not in the 
pursuit of new privileges, but in defence and for the recovery 
of ancient, and original privileges ; privileges, on the pledge of 
which their fathers had settled and built up the country. It 
Was their earnest desire and purpose to conduct the contro- 
versy within the boundaries of argument and persuasion. By 
reasoning, by remonstrance, by appeals to the conscience and 
the moral sense of England and the world, they had hoped 
to vindicate their cause. They protested against the use of 
force, and only retaliated it, in the last extremity. It is un- 
just, it is cruel, it is shameful to quote the revolutionary war, 
in defence and justification of every insurrection and every 
mob fomented by reckless and desperate men. It is a gross 
and wicked misrepresentation of that event, and of the great 
and good men who acted in it. 

The American people, of the present generation, are ready 
and determined to prove themselves true to the example of 
their fathers, by maintaining the independence of the country 
against all foreign interference, even if a world in arms should 



40 

assail it. They would cheerfully and gladly rush, as one 
man, to the point of attack, and with united energies, drive 
back the invader. But the heart sickens at the thought of 
having to preserve our liberties and privileges with bayonets 
constantly pointed at each others' breasts. Under such cir- 
cumstances they would cease to be privileges and liberties. 
Solitude, deserts, deaths would be infinitely preferable to 
such a condition of society and life. 

Tiie might that slumbers in a freeman's arm is our defence 
against the enemies of our country. It is a sure defence. It 
is a wall of fire around our borders. But in domestic con^ 
flicts we recognize no might, but that of reason and truth, 
addressed to the intelligence and conscience of the people^ 
and passed upon by them in such manner and form as the 
law provides for the authoritative expression of their sover- 
eign will. He who can harbor the idea of resorting to force, 
in a free republican country, to accomplish a political object, 
is ignorant of the first rudiments of popular liberty. He who 
has dared to carry it into practice, has committed the highest 
crime against the peace of society. And they who, standing 
at a safe distance, and having no right to intermeddle, and 
whose education, and positions, as professed statesmen and 
political leaders, deprive them of the excuse of not un- 
derstanding the question, have stimulated their neighbor- 
ing fellow citizens to a bloody domestic insurrection, are 
guilty of what in a republic ought to be, and when fully 
understood, will be, regarded by all parties, as the most 
unpardonable sin. 

In uttering these sentiments I fear not the imputation of 
encroaching upon the party politics of the day. This is 
not a party question. It cannot be made one. A party 
could not stand a day in Massachusetts on the ground of a 



41 

forcible and sanguinary assault upon the established govern- 
ment. It would be dangerous, and, I doubt not, fatal ground 
for a party to occupy in any one of the United States. The 
people, in this country, can only assail the government 
through the ballot-box, and if none but legitimate means are 
employed, those means will, in due season and in good sea- 
son, prevail, in every state, in bringing the ballot-box within 
the reach of the arm of every citizen of responsible age, who 
has embarked his hfe and fortunes and affections in the coun- 
try, and who, by being competent, and liable to be called, to 
serve the state, may in justice, and equity, maintain his claim 
to participate in governing it. 

In having thus denounced the use of force, in accomplish- 
ing political reform, in free states, I am sure of the support 
and sympathy, not only of all true christian philanthropists, 
but of every man who understands the meaning of civiliza- 
tion and republicanism. Civilization expresses the growing 
ascendancy of the moral and intellectual energies of man- 
kind, over the physical and sensual faculties and passions of 
their nature. When, therefore, a civilized state, commits its 
destiny to the issue of physical strength, to a struggle of mere 
brute force, it abandons, for the time being, its civilization, 
p.nd surrenders itself back to barbarism. The most perfect 
idea, we can form, of a free republican constitution of soci- 
ety, is one in which political power is shared equally by all 
the citizens. But if military force is permitted to determine 
political power, large classes of the citizens will be disfran- 
chised. The conscientious, who from principle are opposed 
to war in any form or for any purpose, will, of course, be ex- 
cluded. So will the aged, the feeble, the sick, the busy, and 
all who are required to provide for the subsistence of fami- 
lies, and the preservation of the state. 
6 



49 

What folly, or what hypocrisy, it is for those persons to 
pretend to respect the rights of the people, who at the same 
time advocate a principle which thus excludes from political 
power such large classes of the most deserving citizens ! The 
use of force in political controversies, is subversive of the true 
democratic doctrine of the right of the majority to govern. 
Success in war does not depend upon numbers only, but up- 
on an infinite variety of circumstances. An incompetent 
leader, a defective organization, or insufficient supplies, may 
bring vast multitudes of men into captivity to a mere handful 
of disciplined troops, well provided, and skilfully commanded. 

For these, and other reasons too numerous to mention, and 
too obvious to need to be mentioned, I feel authorized and 
bound to assert, that the use of force, in obtaining power, in 
any of these republican states, is a violation of the great prin- 
ciples of popular and democratic liberty. He who recom- 
mends it, does what he can to bring us under that very 
power by which despots, in every age of the world, have 
made abject slaves of the great majority of their subjects. 
One of those despots inscribed his cannon "the last argu- 
ment OF kings." It was the custom of another, pointing to 
his artillery, to pronounce it "the supreme law." As an 
argument, it has no place in the logic, as a law, it has no 
place in the code, of republicanism. May it be repudiated, 
forever, with abhorrence, by the whole American people, of 
every party, and in every state ! 

If my voice could but reach those of my fellow country- 
men, who feel themselves deprived of their just natural rights, 
who, whether in the North or the South, are excluded from 
the privileges of freemen, and I claim a right to appeal to 
them, for no heart in the land beats with a livelier and deeper 
sympathy for them than mine, I would beg, and implore 



43 

them never, voluntarily and of choice, — never, unless abso- 
lutely driven to it by their oppressors, — to resort to violence, 
however clearly the physical and numerical force may seem 
to be within their grasp. The awful and murderous opera- 
tions of military power can only be justified, when directed 
against a foreign invader, or domestic conspirators attempt- 
ing to obtain possession of the government by force of arms ; 
even in such cases they must be allovi^ed to be in themselves 
great evils, and are only tolerated, because necessary to put 
down still greater evils. They cannot be rightfully employed, 
as means of enlarging the liberties, or reforming the abuses, 
of any nation or community. The horrors and cruelties of 
civil and intestine war, the bloodshed and the barbarism of 
the battle-field, the furies and the crimes attendant upon 
massacre, conflagration and pillage, can never be made to 
prepare the way for the blessings of liberty, peace and equal 
rights to enter and take up their abode in any land. They 
serve only to bind upon it still more firmly the burden and 
the woes of slavery and sin. "All they that take the sword," 
that is, select and adopt it as the means of improving 
their social or political condition, "shall perish with the 
sword." But truth is mighty, reason is mighty, con- 
science is mighty, the spirit of human and of christian 
benevolence is mightier than them all, and the most de- 
spised minority, the most trampled victims of oppression 
and slavery, if they make these the weapons of their war- 
fare, and wield them in faith, patience and perseverance, 
will be sure to conquer, for God will be their ally. And 
the strongest and fiercest giant, who comes to the field with 
a spear, and with a sword, and with a shield, will be sure 
to fall before the merest stripling who meets him in the 
name of the Lord. 



44 

I would extend the same appeal to that vast and continu- 
ally increasing multitude, scattered through all other coun- 
tries, whose hearts have been kindled with the glowing aspi- 
rations of patriotism and philanthropy, by the contemplation 
of the successful operation of free institutions here. 

This day, my fellow citizens, does not belong to you, or to 
America alone. It is dear to the hearts of millions else- 
where. It is their day as well as yours. As nation after na- 
tion shall, hereafter, rise to the enjoyment of republican in- 
stitutions, they will all look back to the Fourth of July 1776, 
as the true original birth day of their liberties. It is the an- 
niversary of Human Freedom ; and the friends of freedom 
every where have a right to be recognized as worthy to par- 
ticipate in its celebration. Wherever they dwell, even in the 
uttermost parts of the earth, they are your brethren. Prompt- 
ed by the sympathy, appropriate to this relation, you have 
welcomed us, as in thousands and tens of thousands we have 
flocked to your shores, have received us to fraternal confi- 
dence, and given to us free and happy homes. 

Speaking, then, in behalf of our brethren, in other lands, 
I would earnestly entreat you to send to them, across the 
wide ocean, a voice of encouragement to persevere, with 
good heart and hope, in the work of reform ; but with that 
voice of encouragement mingle a voice of warning ; charge 
and implore them to maintain the dignity and the sanctity of 
their cause, and never to be seduced by an erroneous and su- 
perficial view of the American War of Independence, or by 
the baleful examples which have been set, in a few instances 
in our history, by misguided men, to betray that cause, by 
voluntarily committing it to violence and bloodshed. If they 
will but be firm, and calm, and patient, watching for every 
proper opportunity to diffuse their principles, and faithfully 



addressing argument and persuasion, dissuasion and remon- 
strance, to their respective fellow-citizens and governments, 
they will be continually acquiring a moral strength, greater 
than the power of armies, and their triumph, even if late, will 
be complete, and sure and perpetual. 

But however the friends of the cause of liberty may dis- 
charge their trust elsewhere, let us be faithful. Let us re- 
solve that here it shall never be removed from its true foun- 
dation, or sustained by any other than its only legitimate and 
only sufficient support, the moral energies of a virtuous and 
intelligent people. 

It is obvious that, in this country, every thing depends up- 
on the prevalence of a clear and thorough apprehension of 
the principle I have now enforced, and an inflexible fidelity 
of allegiance to it on the part of the people. A compUca- 
tion of moral influences is acting upon the frame of society 
which, if not interrupted and thwarted by bringing into dis- 
turbing and deranging operation the uncongenial agency of 
mere brute force, cannot fail ultimately to enlarge the bless- 
ings of liberty, where it is already enjoyed, and to confer it 
upon those who are now deprived of it. If religion, educa- 
tion, benevolence, and the inherent energies of civilization 
and republicanism are permitted peacefully to continue to 
operate, it needs no prophecy to predict the final triumph 
of human rights over every vestige of feudalism, and every 
form of slavery, within the boundaries of the American 
Union. If political parties, and contending masses of the 
people can be kept from employing physical force against 
each other, all will issue well ; but if the barbaric enginery 
of guns and bayonets is allowed to enter the field, our 
liberty and our civilization will be lost, at once, and 
forever. 



46 

Wlien we consider the materials of which our citizen sol- 
diery is composed, we feel sure that all is safe and right. 
Enlightened by education, and attached by their professional 
occupations, by the domestic ties that are gathered around 
them, and by the stake they have in the property and pros- 
perity of the community, to the cause of order and peace, we 
know that they will exercise with sacred fidelity, the fear- 
fully responsible power with which they are invested. 

Because we so regard you, citizen soldiers, we rejoice to 
behold your glittering ranks moving through our streets, to 
listen to the soul-inspiring strains of your martial music, to 
unfold the ensign of our sovereignty over your heads, and to 
throw around your organization the sanction and the favor of 
the law. We have placed the sword, with proud confidence, 
in your hands, knowing that you will wield it only against 
foreign enemies of your country, or armed insurgents at- 
tempting by force to overthrow your government. We trust 
to you to maintain the efficiency and spirit of such mihtary 
organization as may be judged desirable ; and we know that 
you will be careful and conscientious in keeping the military 
subordinate and faithful to the civil authority of the state. 
The only power you will ever wield against your own gov- 
ernment, will be the power you possess as citizens, operating, 
by discourse and in debate, upon public opinion — the power 
of 

"The Freeman, casting with unpurchased liand 
Tl>e vote that shakes the turrets of the land." 

And let us all, my fellow citizens, in our several spheres, 
be true and devoted to the great interests of patriotism and 
humanity. The place where we have our abode is a class- 
ical spot in the history of free institutions. Here the foun- 
dations of civil and religious liberty were laid, deep and im- 



47 

movable, at the very beginning. Here was one of the earli- 
est, if not the very earliest, Free School in America. The 
winds, that wafted Winthrop to our port, breathed the spirit 
of unconquerable and undying independence into the new- 
born Commonwealth, and from this point that spirit has been 
spread over the whole length and breadth of the continent. 
A House of Assembly, sitting in this place, proposed and 
led the way in creating the glorious old Congress which car- 
ried the country through the War of the Revolution. Here 
the people first confronted the royal power, face to face. — 
Here the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as a sovereign 
State, rose into being — and here intelligence, and enterprize, 
and patriotism have ever had a favorite home. 

By taking, and by keeping, the lead in diffusing and in- 
creasing the blessings of education, of temperance, of charity, 
and of piety, may we and our posterity secure ever increas- 
ing distinction, glory, and happiness to this our beloved City 
of Peace. 



NOTE. 

In confirmation of the views, expressed in the foregoing Address, of the import 
tant and decisive agency of the First Charter Government of Massachusetts, in 
preparing the way for American Independence, I would refer to President 
Quincy's Centennial Oration, delivered in Boston on the I7th of September, 
1830 — one of the most instructive and eloquent productions of its class. 



A P P E N D I X . 



A- [p. 27.] 

The following account of the aflair ;U Nortli Bridge, \vii3 liisl piiiiteil as |)ai( 
fif a Memoir of TuroTHY PiCKERi.Nu, pnbliilied ill the National I'oitrait (Ja!- 
lery of Distinguished Americans, at Phihuleltjhia, 1834. 

"The memorable distinction of conducting the first resistance in arms to the 
flower of the mother country, fell to the lot of Colonel Pickering. On Sunday, 
the 26th February, 1775, while the inhabitants of Salem were assembled in their 
usual places of worship, an express from Marbiehcad brought intelligence, (hat a 
regiment of British troops were landing from a transport ship, and preparing to 
inarch through Salem, to take possession of some military stores, deposited in the 
interior of the county. The people were instantly dismissed from their churches, 
and assembled on the drawbridge, with such means of resistance as were at hand, 
where they awaited the approach of Col. Leslie and his regiment. On their ar- 
rival at the bridge the draw was raised. Colonel Pickering presented himself on 
the opposite side, at the head of the multitude, and a small body of minute-men, 
drawn iip in battle array. He informed Col. Leslie that the military stores he 
had come to seize were the property of the people, and that they would not be 
surrendered without a struggle. Colonel Leslie then ordered his men to get into 
;\ large gondola, attached to the wharf, and in that way secure a passage over the 
narrow stream. In a moment, Joseph Sprague, Esq., the owner of the boat, and 
at that time, the major of the Essex regiment, sprang on board, beat a hole 
through her side, and sunk her to the bottom. While effecting his purpose, he 
was wounded by the bayonets of the enemy, thus shedding the first blood of the 
revolution. While these events were taking place, the parties were fast reaching 
such a degree of exasperation as would have brought on a general and sanguinary 
conflict. At this juncture, the Reverend Mr. Barnard interposed, and by his ju- 
dicious persuasions prevented the approaching catastrophe. He represented to 
Col. Leslie that the day was so far spent, that he would not be able to reacii the 
place where the stores were deposited, before night, even if the draw were then 
let down, and that such was the determined spirit of the militia and people in 
general, that a passage could not be forced without great carnage on both sides. 
Colonel Leslie at last concluded to send a message to Colonel Pickering, [jjedging 
his honor, that if he would let him pass the bridge, so that it might appear a vol- 
untary act on his part, he would abandon the attempt to seize the stores, and im- 



50 

mediately after passing the briilge, turn back again towarJs 5!aibli;lieatl. Colonel 
Pickering ordered liis arined men, and the assembled multitude, to arrange them- 
selves on both sides of the road, facing inwards, the draw was let down, the Brit- 
ish regiment marched throngh the silent ranks of the patriots, advanced a kw 
rods beyond the bridge, countermarched, returned with a quick step to Marble- 
head, re-embarked, and set sail from the harbor that night." 

Since writing the foregoing account, I have received the following additional 
particulars from our venerable and respected fellow citizen, Johx Howard, 
Esq., who was himself under arms, on the occasion, in Marblehead: — 

AVhen Col. Leslie had landed his troops, the Selectmen of Blarblehead waited 
upon him to enquire the object of so extraordinary a movement as the disembark- 
ation of such a force, in that place,- on the Lord's Day. He declined giving them 
any information. There were eight military companies in Marblehead, at that 
time, comprising nearly the whole male population, between sixteen and sixty 
years of age. They were all promptly assembled under Colonel Orne. Mr. 
Howard thinks that they numbered more than a thousand men. They were or- 
dered to station themselves behind the houses and fences along the road, prepared 
to fall upon the British, on their return from Salem, if it should be found tiiat hos- 
tile measures had been used by them; but if it should appear that no concerteil 
act of violence upon the persons or property of the peojjle had been committed, 
they were charged not to show themselves, but to allow the British detachment to 
return unmolested to their transport. If the counsels of the Rev. Mr. Barnard 
had not been heeded, and Leslie had persisted in forcing his way beyond the 
bridge, it cannot be doubted that the road from Salem to Marblehead would have 
been the scene, on the 26th of February, of a more sanguinary and destructive re- 
treat tlian was the road from Concord to Lexington on the 19th of April of that 
same year. Whoever considers the spirit, which on such an occasion, kindles 
in the breasts of Marblehead-men, the overwhelming numbers in whicli they 
were gathered to the field, and the prudent but resolute orders under which they 
were arranged and directed, can have no doubt that, had Leslie given provocation, 
neither he nor one of his men would have lived to return to their ship. 



51 

B. [p. 27.] 

The following is exliacted fioin :iii article in the Salcm Register of I\Iay 12, 
1842, giving a history of the Court Houses in Salem, with the addition of a single 
circiiiiistance, ascertained since its date. 

" This Court House became the scene of the most important and momentous 
political transactions. On the 7th of June, 1774, the General Court of Jlassachu- 
setts met at Salen). The House of Assembly occupied the Court House. It was at 
this session that the plan of a Gknekal Congkess was suggested, to " delib- 
erate and determine upon wise and proper measures to be l)y them recommended 
to all ihe Colonies for the recovery nnd establishment of their just rights and lib- 
erties, civil and religious." In pursuance of this plan, such a Congress was pro- 
posed to be assembled at Philadelphia on the 1st of September, the Speaker was 
tiirected to communicate the proposal to the Speakers of all the olher Colonies, 
and the five following persons were appointed to represent Massachusetts in said 
Congress : — Thomas Cusliing, Samuel Ad;>ms, Robert Tieat Paine, James Bow- 
doin, and John Adams. 

When Governor Gage found what patriotic and decisive measures the House of 
Assembly was pursuing, he sent his Secretary to dissolve it. But the members 
of the House getting intelligence of his design, locked their door, and would allou' 
no one to enter until their proceedings were all consummated. The Secretary 
read the Governor's Proclamation on the stairs, and the House dissolved in 
obedience to it, as soon as it was ready. 

Whcii the doors of the House were closed upon the Governor's Secretary, or- 
dens were despatched to the military to march to the Court House and compel 
the House to dissolve and disperse. The troojis on their way up fron> the Keck, 
halted, where Newbury street enters Essex street, near the site of the Franklin 
Building, to load. While thus engaged, word was broug!;t that the House ha\ing 
finished its business, liad adjourned sine die, and separated. 

A Continental Congress, as is well known, was the instrument by wiiicli the 
Colonies were united into one compacted body and thus enabled to pass triumph- 
antly through the Revolutionary contest. Without such a political organization 
and confederation all resistance to the poxver of Great Britain would have easily 
been crushed. It was such a Congress as the House of Assembly proposed that 
aloue could have saved the cause.. Whoever considers the migl;ty consequences 
which have llowed from the successful resistance of the Colonies, and from the 
Independence of the United States of America, will appreciate the interest which 
belongs to the memory of the Salem Court House, where, in defiance of the Royal 
CJovernor and of the Empire whose authority he wielded, the representatives of 
the people provided for a union of the Colonies in a confederated Congress, and 
fleeted the first delegates to that body. 

That same Court Room was the fountain tVoin which proceeded not only tlic 
National Government of Uniteil America, but the distinct political organization 
of the State Government. The circumstances which led to the existence of an 
independent Government in Massachusetts, were as follows: — 

On the 1st of September 1774, Governor Gage sent out precepts for the election 
of representatives for a General Court, to be convened at Salem, on tlu; 5lh of 
October of that year. The result of llic elections, and the high lorie of publia 
sentiment e.\prcsscd at the town mccliiig.'- througlnint the Colony, Icil the Govern- 



cr auil his Coimcil lo issue a I'roelamatioii, on tiie 23ili of Scpieiiiber, forbiilJiiif; 
the inemhersi eli^ct to assemble, and ilissolving the House of Assembly before it 
had been formed. This was considered as a highly unconstitutional measure, and 
it was resolved to disregard altogether the Proclamation. The members elect of 
the House of Assembly accordingly met, in conformity with the Executive pre- 
cepts, in pursuance of which they had been chosen by the people, in the Court 
House of Salem, on Wednesday, October 5th, 1774. The head quarters of Gov- 
ernor Gage were at the Collins House in Danvers. Upon convening, the House 
sent a Message to his Excellency, signifying their readiness to take the usual 
oaths of office, and requesting his attenilancp for that purpose. His Excellency 
did not deign a reply. The House remained in silence, waiting for his Excellen- 
cy, until noon — then adjourned to the afternoon — remained in silence until the 
<,lose of the day — adjourned to the next morning, and after waiting till nearly the 
close of the day, resolved, it being ascertained that his Excellency was determined 
to neglect his duty, to proceed to the discharge of their own. 'I'hey accordingly 
organized themselves, chose John Hancock, Chairman, and Benjamin Lin- 
coln, Secretary, and appointed a Committee to consider and report upon what 
ouo-ht to be done, under the very peculiar circumstances of the case. The next 
forenoon, on Fridav, October 7, the Commitlec reported the following rreauible 
and Resolutions: — 

Province of the Massachusetts Bay. 
In the Court Hoiiae at Salem, October 7, 1774. 

Whekeas, his excellency, Thomas Gage, Esq., did issue writs bearing date 
the first of September last, for the election of members to serve as represeniatives 
in a oreat and general court, which he did " think fit and appoint " U) be convened 
and holden the fifth day of October instant, at the court house in this place : And 
whereas, a majority of members duly elected in consequence of said writs, diil at- 
tend at said court house the time appointed, there to be (]ualified according to 
charter for taking seats and acting as leprcsentatives in said great ami general 
court; but were not met by the governor or otlicr constitutional officer or officers 
bv him appointed for administering the usual oaths, and qualifying ihem thereto : — 
And whereas, a proclamaiion, bearing date the 2Slli day of September last, and 
published in sundry newspapers, with the signature of his excellency, contains 
many rellections on this province, as being in a tumultuous and disorderly state; 
and appears to have been considered by his excellency as a constitutional discharge 
of nil siK'h persons as have been elected in conse(incnce of his excellency's said 
\vrits : The members aforesaid so attending, having considered the measnros 
\\liich his excellency has been pleased to lake by his said proclamation, and find- 
in" them to be unconstitutional, unjust, and disrespectl'ul lo the province, think it 
their duty lo i)ass the following resolves : 

Therefore, Resolved, as the opinion of said members : 

1st. That by the royal charier of the pro\ ince, the governor, for the time being, 
is expressly oliligeil to convene, " upon every last Wednesday in the month <il' 
May everv'vear forever, and at such other times as he shall think tit and a|)poiM!, 
a areat and'general court." And, therefore, that as his excellency had ihouglu. 
lit and by his writ iippointed a great and general court lo be convened on the tilth 
<lay of October instant, his conduct in preventing the same is against the express 
words as well as true sense and meaning of the charter, and unconstitnliimal ; more 
especially as, by charier, his excellency's |)ower "to ailjonrn, prorogue and dis- 
Bolve all "real and general courts," doth not take |)lace after oaid courts shall be 
appointed, until they have fust "met and convened." 

2dlv. That the constitutional government of the inhabitants of this province, 
beings by a considerable military force at this time attempted to be supersedeil 
and annulled; and the people, under the most alarming and just npprehensions of 
•slavery, having, in tlieir laudable endeavois to prc.-^erve tliemselves therefioiii dis- 
covered, upon all occnsinns, the greatest aversion to disorder and tumult, it niii.'t 
be evident to all atteiuling to his excsllenr) 's said pruclnuiation, tlial his rcprescn- 



53 

latioiis of the province as hoiiig in ;i liiiiuiluious i\iul ilisordeipd .slalo, are re/Icc- 
tioiis tlie iiiliabitaiits have hy no iiiiMiis iiii'iiteil; and, theretDic, tlial they •no 
higldy injurious and inikind. 

3iliy. Tliat as the pretended cause of his excellency's proclamation fur dis- 
cliarginjf the members elected by the province in pursuance of iiis writs, has for a 
considerable time existed, his excellency's conduct in choosing to issue said pi'ocla- 
iiiation, (had it been in other respects unexceptionable,) but a few days before tiie 
court was to have been convened, and thereby unavoidably putting to unnecessarv 
expense and trouble a great majority of members from the extremities of the 
province, is a measure by no means consistent with the dignity of the province; 
and, therefore, it ought to be considered as a disrespectful treatment of the prov- 
ince, and as an op|)osition to that reconciliation between Great Britain antl iho 
colonies so ardently wished for by all the friends of both. 

4thly. That some of the causes assigned as aforesaid for this unconstitutional 
and wanton prevention of the general court, have, in all good governments, been 
considered among the gteatept leasons for convening a parliament or assembly; 
and, therefore, the proclamation is considered as a further proof, not oidy of his 
excellency's disalTection towards the ])ro\ince, but of the iiecessilv of its nuisl 
vigorous and immediate exertions for preserving the freedom and constitution 
thereof. 

These Resolutions, with the Preamble, were accepted, and foriluvith the follow- 
ing vote was moved, seconded, and passed : — 

Voted, That the members aforesaid do now resolve themselves into a Provin- 
cial Congress, to be joined by such other persons as have been or shall be chosen 
for that purpose, to take into consideration the dangerous and alarming situation 
of public affairs in this province, and to consult antl determine on such ineasnifs 
as they shall judge will tend to promote the true interest of his majesty, and the 
peace, welfare and pros])erity of the province. 

The Congress having elected again John Hancock and Benjamin Lincoln as 
Chairmanand Secretary, adjourned to meet at Concord the next Tuesday, Oct. 11, 
1771. This was the origin of the State Government of Massachusetts. 



54 

ORIGINAL ODK — written bit edwik jocelyn, i;s<i. 

Air — ''Hail Columbia.^' 

I. 

Wake llie song! ne'er let it sleep! 
Bid its breatli ia triumph sweep 

O'er a L:ind wliose kindling voice 
Calls (HI Nature to rejoice! 
Let tlie t^liont in jovuis suund. 
Rouse tlie ini)untain eclmes round ! 
Oocan, with its heaving swell, — 
Heaven al)ove, the gladness tell; — 
Fire, its liurning trilnite p;iy, 
To radiate and gild ihe Day ! 

Chorus, — llail the Day I its glnnnus N'amk 
Long shall live on scroll of Fami;! 
Day of pride forever lie 
To hearts United, Firm, and Free ! 

II. 

Lives there yet that sarred lire 

Transinitled fror)i each valiant SiRE — 

The liaine that shot throuyh patriot veind. 
When tyranny but stirr'd liis chains^ — 

Oh! rouse llu; spark, if still it live — 

This hour a holy impulse give; 

The Patriot spirit noiv be sliar'd, 
If marring /lart?/ yet has spar'd; — 

Oh! let the Day revive, renew 

'i'lie spirit of thai daring Few! 
Chorus, — Hail thk Day, &c. 

lil. 

Crown the Day! the Kallow'd Time! 

Joy ring out from lower'd chime; 

Beauty's fingers garlands weave, — 
And Beauty's breast ecstatic lieave, 

While Truth its patriot njaxim leads, 

And Song its glad'ning accent blends, — 
Let Age, reviving, i:atcli the glow, 
And Youth, inspired, in virtue grow; — 

Then the Day shall blessings bring. 

As Time returns on circling wing! 
Chorus, — II AIL THE Day! c;c. 



ORDER OF EXERCISER 

AT MECHANIC HALL, JULY 4, 1842. 



I. 

Voluntary — by the Band. 

II. 
Introductory Prayer — by Rev. Joel Mann. 

III. 
Anthem — ^by a select choir. 

IV. 

Reading of the Declaration of Independence — by Rev, 
Thomas D. Anderson. 

V. 

Original Ode — by Edwin Jocelyn, Esq. 

VI. 
Oration — by Rev. Charles W. Upham. 

VII. 
Anthem. 

VIII. 

Concluding Prayer, and Benediction — by Rev. L. S. Everett. 



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